NEW DELHI: The government on Wednesday claimed that the number of most affected districts by Left-Wing-Extremism (LWE) has been brought down to three from six.
The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in an official statement also confirmed that the total number of affected districts has also fallen from 18 to just 11, as the recent operational successes have surpassed all previous records wherein 312 LWE cadres have been eliminated and 836 of them have been arrested, while1,639 have shunned the path of violence by surrendering to join the mainstream.
Now, only Bijapur, Sukma and Narayanpur in Chhattisgarh are the most affected districts by the LWE, the MHA said on a day when 88 members of CPI (Maoist) surrendered in Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra.
“In a giant stride towards the Modi government’s vision of building a Naxal-free Bharat, the number of districts most affected by Naxalism has been brought down to three from six," the MHA statement read, while adding that in the category LWE-affected districts, the number has also fallen to just 11 from 18.
The Modi government is committed to completely eradicating the Naxal menace by the 31st of March 2026, the MHA reiterated in the statement.
“Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and guidance of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, the operational successes have surpassed all previous records this year wherein 312 LWE cadres have been eliminated, including CPI (Maoist) General Secretary and 8 other Polit Bureau/Central Committee Members,” the MHA said, adding that as many as “836 LWE cadres have been arrested and 1,639 have surrendered and joined the mainstream”. The surrendered LWE cadres include one Politburo Member and a Central Committee Member.
The MHA said the government has achieved “unprecedented success” in combating the Naxal menace through rigorous implementation of the National Action Plan and Policy, which envisages a multi-pronged approach. The action plan includes precise intelligence-based and people-friendly counter-LWE operations, it added.
“These steps were accompanied by swift domination of areas with a security vacuum, targeting of top leaders as well as over-ground workers, countering the nefarious ideology, rapid development of infrastructure and saturation of welfare schemes, choking of finances, enhanced coordination between states and centre governments and accelerated investigation and prosecution of Maoist-related cases,” the statement read.
Once called India's “biggest internal security challenge” by the then Prime Minister in 2010, Naxalism is now visibly retreating, the MHA said, adding that the Left extremists had planned a Red Corridor - stretching from Pashupati in Nepal to Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh.
In 2013, 126 districts from different states reported Naxal-related violence but by March 2025, this tally had fallen to just 18 districts, with only six classified as ‘Most Affected Districts’, it noted.
